dmidecode is a tool for dumping a computer DMI (some say SMBIOS) table contents in a human-readable format. This table contains a description of the system hardware components, as well as other useful pieces of information such as serial numbers and BIOS revision. You can retrieve this information without having to probe for the actual hardware. While this is a good point in terms of report speed and safeness, this also makes the presented information possibly unreliable.
The DMI table does not only describe what the system is currently made of, it also can report the possible evolutions (such as the fastest supported CPU or the maximal amount of memory supported).
SMBIOS stands for System Management BIOS, while DMI stands for Desktop Management Interface. Both standards are tightly related and developed by the DMTF (Desktop Management Task Force).
# yum install dmidecode
# dmidecode –type bios [About BIOS Details]
# dmidecode –type system [About System Information]
# dmidecode –type baseboard [About NIC & Storage Card]
# dmidecode –type chassis [About Chassis Information]
# dmidecode –type processor [About Processor Information]
# dmidecode –type memory [About Memory Information]
# dmidecode –type cache [About Cache Information]
# dmidecode –type connector [About USB Information]
# dmidecode –type slot [About Slot Information]